Sunday, August 3, 2008

A Week in AZ

Last Sunday Scott & I left at 4am (I guess that would be Monday morning, but whatever) to drive to Arizona. We spent a week there, and flew home Saturday. We stayed with my friend, Shelley, from college and her hubby, Mark, in their beautiful new home. They were very hospitable and we had a good time. While there we also had dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. That was fun, as well.

The majority of the time we were there was spent looking at houses. Most days we would meet up with the Realtor at 10 am, which was a 40 minute drive from Shelley's, and not return home until 10 or 11pm. We looked at TONS of houses. Some of them were down right scary. Others were nice homes, but the neighborhood was totally ghetto.

We really liked one house we looked at, and decided to put an offer in on it. At 6 pm there were no other others, but by noon the next day when we got our offer in there were 2 other offers in on the property! That just goes to show you how crazy the real estate market is in Phoenix. We found out the next day that our offer wasn't accepted. It is probably a good thing, though, because after we had already turned in our offer we looked up the address on the sexual predator list and there were THREE within 2 blocks of that house. YIKES! Doesn't sound like the place I want to be while Scott is gone to school all day!

There was another house we looked at that Scott got really excited about. I was excited, too, but not in the same way he was. ;) The house is bank-owned and the person who owned it when it was repossessed was REALLY angry it was being taken, so he ripped out all the cabinetry, sinks, master bath tub and shower, light fixtures...basically anything he could, and then left the water running as he left. When the listing agent went to look at the house, he opened the door and a flood came pouring out! It was just like in the movies. So, then the bank had to go in and try to stop any water damage and ended up removing all the sheetrock 2ft down throughout the house, and all the sheetrock-walls & ceiling- from the master bedroom and bathroom.

Needless to say, when we walked in there it was kinda scary. Basically the whole house is gutted and is down to the studs. It's kinda a huge project that, at first, I didn't want to tackle. We've had so much stuff to deal with this year, and I didn't want us getting in over our heads. But, Scott could see the potential and I knew he was excited about it.

So, we asked my uncle, who is a contractor for a living, to come take a look at the house and see how much money & effort it really would take to get the house back in shape. His analysis was very encouraging. He gave us a rough estimate, and said that if we could get the house it would be very worthwhile. He also said he could get people in there to do all the sheetrocking, etc before we moved out there, so we wouldn't have to worry about that with school starting so soon for Scott. That was the clincher for me.

We prayed about it and both felt really good about the house, so we called up our real estate agent and said to write up an offer on it. So far, we are the only offer in on that house (that we know of), and hopefully we will hear back that our offer has been accepted soon!! Wish us luck!

FRONT OF HOUSE

FRONT ENTRYWAY

KITCHEN

MASTER BEDROOM

3 comments:

  1. Wow! That does look like alot of work, but if you get it for a better price, that would be awesome! Good Luck!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is so exciting!!!!! I hope you get it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good luck with your offer! That is so how real estate goes, as soon as you want it, so does everyone else! But I believe everything happens for a reason and maybe there is something special for you to do in the new neighborhood, who knows?
    Heidi

    ReplyDelete

Comments make me smile. :D